Unionism
In 1996, he joined Robert McCartney's United Kingdom Unionist Party (UKUP) and was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum. He later resigned from the UKUP after publishing an extract from his book Memoir: My Life and Themes in which he called on Unionists to consider the benefits of a united Ireland to thwart Sinn Féin. In 2005 he rejoined the Labour Party. He was widely regarded as a hate figure amongst Republicans. He defended his harshness towards extreme nationalists by saying "We do right to condemn all violence but we have a special duty to condemn the violence which is committed in our name".
Read more about this topic: Conor Cruise O'Brien
Famous quotes containing the word unionism:
“What is Virtue but the Trade Unionism of the married?”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)